If MB recommends premium gas then that's what you should use. Using lower grades can (probably will) cause pre-detonation (commonly called "pinging"). Pre-detonation occurs when the gas/air mixture in the combustion chamber detonates as the piston is rising on the compression stroke. You'll hear and sometimes even feel a series of ugly sounding thunks, or pings.

Imagine the counter forces at work here and you quickly realize that it can (and certainly does) do severe engine damage. Everything from blown head gaskets to cracked blocks and bent and broken stuff. It's a whole lot cheaper to pay a little more for premium gas than to make repairs to a crippled engine.

 

Point taken.

 

My 99 C280 seems to run at it best with Shell 93 with VPower or Sonoco 92. Both are around $2.65 a gallon in this area. Better then California, which on the news this morning shows high Octane at $3.25 a gallon. I was forced to put some 89 octane in a while back as the station had run out of 93. I put $5.00 in to get me to the next Shell station, no apparent damage of noise. But that was the only time I did this. and $5.00 two months ago bought about 3 gallons or so. Now you get two gallons. Check out the August car of the month it is mine!

 

RockSolid - how did you find the car?

 

I went to a Mercedes Dealer in Hartford, New Country Motors and found it on the lot. When I got it, it still had a year of factory warrant, plus a year of Starmark and I bought an extra year of Starmark drivtrain and had the few problems I mentioned above. As I said the car is extremely reliable and drives like a dream. People say once you drive a Benz, you won't drive anything else. It is true, I like it better in some ways then the Bmw 3 series I traded.

 

Wizard, I was refering to Rocksolid's new purchase! But, your C280 definatly deserves "Car of the Month", its in such good condition with very unique and fitting upgrades.

 

At the end of your post it said in reply to c280 wizard, that is why I sent my post!. Sometmies if you don't following the original tread the person you are sending it to won't be shown.

 

good deal, ill start paying attention

 

Sorry for not responding. (I thought I signed up for email notification. It's not happening.)

I'm very satisfied. The car was put on-line by an MB dealer because it had too many miles for them to put it on their lot--according to their standards.
I'd say the car is in excellent condition. Interior is perfect. Exterior is amazing. This car came with MB paint protection option. The paint looks like the car has been sitting in a showroom.
When I went to pick-up the car, the AC was not working. Some time later I found out the drivers side seat did not heat. I was disappointed as these repairs would make my great deal just average. Since the car was sold "as-is" I wasn't sure if I was going to get any help with the repairs. However, I have to hand it to the dealer ( Lyle Pearson Co. of Boise, ID and my salesman Jason Rockne) they repaired the A/C to the tune of $900 and gave me a new seat cushion and heating element ($250) all for free! (I'm on the hook for the labor to repair the seat-$150-$200. But I would have rebuilt the seat anyway)
It's an amazing car to drive.
The funny thing is I used to drive a Ford Focus. I thought the handling was pretty amazing for an econo car ( it made car and drivers 10 best from 2000-2004, mainly for it's handling characteristics) but now I can't stand driveing it! It feels unstable--like it's bouncing all over the road.